Which WNBA teams could surprise this season?
Just like that, a new WNBA season is here. Opening night features the Golden State Valkyries making their highly anticipated debut, and Paige Bueckers making her pro debut with the Dallas Wings.
On Saturday night, all eyes will be on the showdown between Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark as the Chicago Sky take on the Indiana Fever.
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We've already made our picks for the champions, MVP and All-WNBA teams — but on the latest episode of 'No Offseason,' Zena Keita, Sabreena Merchant and Ben Pickman turned their attention to the teams that could surprise us this year. Watch the full episode below.
A partial transcript has been edited for clarity and length. The full episode is available on the 'No Offseason' feed on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Keita: Let's move on down the line and discuss our breakout team, and who's going to surprise us all this year. I'll start: There's a storm brewing, and I think people are sleeping on the Seattle Storm. With Skylar Diggins and Nneka Ogwumike, they were right there anyway last year. Of course, they lost Jewell Loyd, but they're now adding in Dominique Malonga, and Ezi Magbegor was also killing it last year at the end of the season. I really think that quartet can be really dangerous this year. They're going to jell even more, they're going to learn from their mistakes from last year, and they're going to play better than people expect.
Merchant: I hesitate to say Seattle was right there when they won zero playoff games. But I'll allow it. However, I do also think they are going to be pretty good this year, and I like their offseason additions quite a bit.
But my breakout team would be the Chicago Sky. I'm a little worried I'm over-indexing on Chicago, and every time somebody asks me who I think is going to surprise us, I just get really excited about Courtney Vandersloot being back in Chicago, along with Angel Reese and Kamilla Cardoso having a real point guard. But honestly, I think it's that simple, they've got a real point guard with shooters around them — it's really not that difficult. If you want your bigs to do well, you need spacing and you need a good playmaker, and they've added that. Even if I'm a little worried about what Chicago may have given up in terms of future assets, I think for this year, their roster makes a lot of sense. Tyler Marsh is a really highly regarded player development coach, and coming from that bench in Las Vegas, he knows how to win. And they brought in championship veterans like Vandersloot and Ariel Atkins. So I like their roster a lot, I like the way it all comes together, and I think that they're going to surprise some people this year.
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Keita: Chicago does have some pieces. But they've got a lot of turnover and a lot of new faces, so we'll have to see what that looks like.
Merchant: Honestly, it's probably for the best because a lot was going on there that people didn't like last year (laughs).
Keita: That's very true (laughs). OK, Ben, who's your surprise pick?
Pickman: Firstly, I just like how Sabreena simplifies basketball by saying, 'It's that simple.' Nothing is ever that simple on the court, is it?
Merchant: Sometimes things don't have to be that complicated.
Pickman: You're right about that. But for me, my sleeper team is the Atlanta Dream because they were one of the busiest teams in free agency, adding Brittney Griner and Brionna Jones. Both Sabreena and I put Rhyne Howard on our most intriguing player list in a podcast episode we did a couple of weeks back, and it was because we'll have to see what she brings in this all-important year. I would expect the basketball to be in her hands more than maybe it's ever been — and with Jordin Canada missing at least at the start of the season as we wait to see how long she's out for with that knee injury — more is going to be on Howard and Allisha Gray's shoulders. Their new coach Karl Smesko came from Florida Gulf Coast, and they shot a ton of 3s pretty much every year throughout his nearly two-decade tenure there. I'm talking more than 50 percent of their shots were 3-pointers. So it's going to be really interesting to see how he makes it all work. I was down there at training camp last weekend just to get a little bit of a peek, and certainly there's a lot of high-low action going on between Jones and Griner that I think is really interesting. BG opened both preseason games with 3-pointers, and I don't think we've ever seen that from her before in the regular season. Atlanta hasn't had a ton of postseason success over the last decade, so I'm just interested to see what they do. Maybe they'll position themselves as a top-four seed after all.
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Keita: I like Atlanta, and watching their preseason games, you can tell Smesko's there because the 3s are going up — everybody's just shooting 3s. I also want to quickly shout out Taylor Thierry and Te-Hina Paopao for making the Atlanta roster as it's incredibly difficult to do, especially because this wasn't a rebuilding team. This was a legitimate team trying to add some talent, and they both made it through to the 12-woman roster, so shout out to them on that. But I just don't know, we'll see how fast Atlanta plays. They've got some bigs and I want to see if Howard really takes over … but I'm still feeling my Storm.
You can listen to full episodes of No Offseason for free on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, and watch on YouTube.
(Top Photo: Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
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